Broncos fans in Central Mass. are bucking the tide

Meet the Ybarras, of Reservoir Street in Holden, who are proof that a mixed marriage can thrive, at least when the mix consists of a Patriots fan and a Broncos fan.

By Andrew Cagen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Billy Ybarra remembers the car trip back from New York City taking three hours.

Laura Ybarra remembers it as longer. Much longer.

It was Oct. 11, 2009, and they were listening on the radio to the Denver Broncos playing the New England Patriots, a game the Broncos wound up winning.

"I remember that Billy had the game on and I tried to shut it off," Laura recalls, "and then we got stopped in traffic. It was terrible."

Meet the Ybarras, of Reservoir Street in Holden, who are proof that a mixed marriage can thrive, at least when the mix consists of a Patriots fan and a Broncos fan.

Billy is part of a significant colony of Broncos fans who live in Central Massachusetts and are willing to withstand the public's scorn to stand by their team.

Billy, a carpenter, was born in Greeley, Colo., about 50 miles north of Denver. He and Laura got married in November, and she appreciates the home-state loyalty, although she didn't appreciate his covering the windows with Broncos messages when they played the Patriots last year.

And the Colorado loyalty extends just to football. They both are ardent Red Sox fans, and enjoyed the first and sixth games of the World Series together at Fenway Park.

"She has season tickets so I really had no choice but to root for the Sox!" Billy, who moved to Massachusetts five years ago, wrote in an email. "But I was raised cheering for the Broncos! I was brought home from the hospital in an orange and blue onesie."

The Rev. Warren Hicks of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, which is on Pleasant Street in Worcester, refuses to abandon his Colorado roots, too, and has gained the grudging respect of the sea of Patriots fans in his congregation.

Rev. Hicks, who wore a big orange hat to the church Wednesday, says he is looking forward to the friendly sparring with parishioners on Sunday.

He doesn't stake a claim to God being a Broncos fan, notwithstanding that Denver is where Tim Tebow was graced with his only success in the NFL.

"I think God has bigger issues, like whether people have health care and whether people are feeding their children," Rev. Hicks said.

Rev. Hicks was born in Wyoming, in 1960, the same year as the Broncos and the Patriots, and his family moved to Colorado when he was a young child.

"I can remember when they were the secondary team to minor league baseball," he said as he recalled suffering through four losses in the Super Bowl before the Broncos finally won one.

His son, Keith, 18, has spent about half his life in Massachusetts, but his Colorado heritage reigns in his heart. He's worn a Peyton Manning jersey to school and will be rooting for the Broncos on Sunday.

Speaking of Manning, he apparently has a strong following of his own — no matter what team he plays for.

Jared Jones, 23, of Grafton has been rooting for Manning since he was the quarterback for the University of Tennessee. He was became a fan of the Indianapolis Colts initially because Marshall Faulk played for them, but quickly became enamored with teammate Manning. When Manning joined the Broncos, Mr. Jones' fandom went with him.

By happenstance, Mr. Jones even resembles Manning, a fact sometimes noted by fellow students at UMass-Boston, where he is a senior, and at UMass Memorial Medical Center on Lake Avenue, where he volunteers. He's tall, has Manning's facial expression, and throws a football with the style, if not the force, of Manning. Perhaps when he becomes a physician, he'll be known as "the doctor who looks like Peyton."

Mr. Jones has a chance to check for similarities when he pops open a Peyton Manning jack-in-the-box, an item he keeps with other Manning memorabilia.

"I'm a Peyton Manning fan," he declared. "I go wherever he goes. I don't know what I'll do when he retires. I'll probably wind up rooting for whatever team he winds up coaching."

There's also a core of Broncos fans who have no ties to Colorado but feel driven to fervently root for a team other than the Patriots.

Such is the case with Laurie Dow of Enfield Street in Worcester, who always was a fan of Manning when he was with the Colts, and at the same time rooted for the Broncos. So she was thrilled when Manning signed with Denver.

"I just always liked the other team," said Ms. Dow, 44, who has followed football since she was a teenager. "I just never liked the Patriots.

"It seems like the Patriots put Tom Brady on a pedestal. All they ever talk about is Brady. He did not practice yesterday (Wednesday) and he was still the one on the TV. It's not about the team, just about Brady."

Ms. Dow, who is also an a big Red Sox fan, will get a chance to vent her Patriots animosity Sunday when she watches the game with her older brother, David Denault, a Patriots fan with whom she shares a home.

"We may have to build a wall between us," she said.

On Sunday, though, she can celebrate or commiserate, as the case may be, with Jennifer Strom, 33, of Marlboro, who became attracted to the Broncos more than a decade ago when she felt sympathy and admiration for wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, who suffered a compound leg fracture in a Monday Night Football game in 2001 but rebounded and had a strong season the next year.

"For some reason, I've never been a Patriots fan. I think it's all the attention they get. They don't talk and give interviews. You don't get a handle on the team."

She was rooting on the Broncos in the cold at Gillette Stadium in November when they blew a 24-0 lead and lost in overtime to the Patriots.

"I stayed until the very last second in the freezing cold," she recalled.

And some fans, including Karl Joppas Jr., 33, of Holland, trace their Broncos roots to a time when Denver was on television more than the Patriots.

He remembers watching the games with his father, so the Broncos are a tie to his loving upbringing.

Mr. Joppas helps run a day care center and participates in a lot of good-natured bantering with the children, who are forming their own warm memories as their parents rear them as Patriots fans.